Daily Content Machine

129: Invisible Details is Going on Pause

September 22, 2018 09:00 - 15 minutes - 17.7 MB

We’ve had an incredible first season of Invisible Details and we’re very proud of what we’ve created. Whether you’ve been listening since the beginning or just started recently, thank you! We hope you’ve received an incredible amount of value from our show. In today’s episode we’ll explain a little bit about why we’re pausing the show and some of the exciting things we have coming up.

128: 5 Not-So-Obvious Things Your Brand Needs

September 15, 2018 09:00 - 56 minutes - 64.7 MB

Logo? Check. Mission statement? Check. Target audience? Website? Check and check. The external components of a brand are fairly easy to spot. You can get a sense of what you need to have in place with a quick Google search or a trip down our podcast archive. It’s not that the obvious things are unimportant. On the contrary, every facet of what brings a brand to life holds great value. There are also many unseen parts of a brand, and it’s a journey we like to take to find those invisible de...

127: Taking Control of Your Day Job

September 08, 2018 09:00 - 41 minutes - 48 MB

When your business is not yet financially viable, you have to have something that pays the bills. Running a business is not cheap, plus with the fact that you need to keep the lights on at home, there has to be a means of income somewhere. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to work on their business full time. Many people support their business ventures by working a day job or bringing in finances by some other means. For some, this may work quite well. They enjoy their day job and i...

126: You Don’t Need to Be the Best

September 01, 2018 09:00 - 41 minutes - 47.9 MB

When learning to ride a motorcycle, one of the earliest things they teach you is to always keep your eyes focused on where you want to go. “Don’t look too long to the left or to the right unless you want to go there,” the instructor says. “Your eyes will lead the bike to that point.” It doesn’t even matter if your head is pointed straight forward. If your eyes wander too far away from where you want your motorcycle to be, your body slowly starts to lean in that direction, and it can obvious...

125: Ethics and Values in Branding

August 25, 2018 09:00 - 56 minutes - 64.5 MB

There is an interesting divide in businesses around the world when it comes to their various practices. Many companies seem to want to do anything it takes to make money, while others take pride in having some level of virtue and wanting to do the “right thing”. The “right thing” can be incredibly subjective, not to mention controversial. If one business says they are doing something ethical, does that necessarily mean that any similar company doing the opposite is not? The values of a comp...

124: Why Design Matters in Branding (with Charli Prangley)

August 11, 2018 09:00 - 52 minutes - 60.2 MB

There is often a confusion with the term “branding”. Many people often think a brand is what something looks like, how it’s made or presented. People often equate “design” and “brand”, even though it’s only part of the picture. All that being said, design is an essential ingredient of a memorable brand, and the best cakes require the best ingredients (yes, I used a cake metaphor.) Charli Prangley is a web and graphic designer who is passionate about helping designers do their best work. She...

123: Dealing With Negativity and Poor Reviews

August 04, 2018 09:00 - 37 minutes - 42.7 MB

Many of the conversations I have with creative professionals or people wanting to get started in business in some sort of creative industry usually come around to this question: “what’s holding you back?” For most people, I’ve found that the biggest obstacle is putting themselves and there out there for the whole world to see and critique. Sure, the possibility of success is there, but so is the possibility of rejection from the people you’re wanting to help the most. The fear of rejectio...

122: Reinventing Yourself (Part 3): How to Change Industries and Find Success (with Sarah Dayan)

July 28, 2018 09:00 - 48 minutes - 55.4 MB

When you make the decision to shift away from your current pursuit to something different, sometimes the transition isn't too big. There may be some overlap and you may not have to rebuild your audience or following. But what if you want to change industries completely? What if you decide that what you have been pursuing is not what brings you fulfillment and you find a passion in something completely different? What does that process look like? On this final part of our three-part series ...

121: Reinventing Yourself (Part 2): Where to Start When You Restart

July 21, 2018 09:00 - 59 minutes - 67.9 MB

In the first episode of this three-part series, we talked about pivoting without throwing everything away. Pivoting is a process in and of itself and you can still bring along a lot of what you’ve already learned and built. Starting from what seems like zero can be complicated, especially when you’ve been in your current industry for a while. People might know you a certain way, you may have built up an existing audience, and your network might still be comprised of the field you want to dep...

120: Reinventing Yourself (Part 1): How to Pivot Without Throwing Everything Away

July 14, 2018 09:00 - 52 minutes - 60.4 MB

There may come a point in your career where it seems like there is a significant fork in the road. Maybe the fork in the road has come because you’re not sure if you’re passionate about what you’ve been doing anymore. Maybe your business isn’t viable or major changes and shifts have happened that now require you to make a decision. You can either continue down the same road you’ve been going or you can change directions. This might be a small shift, perhaps in business practice or something...

119: A Brief Conversation About IGTV

July 07, 2018 09:00 - 13 minutes - 12.4 MB

This is a short conversation that Kyle Adams and I had a few days after the launch of Instagram's new video service IGTV. It is raw, unscripted, and very on-the-spot from our perspectives on using the service and the future of the platform. IGTV is an interesting subject of discussion because of its desire to take a piece of the long-form video market in a unique way. Its dedication to vertical video and insistence that users must adjust their consumption habits is incredibly thought provoki...

118: All Invisible Details Episodes Are Now Free and Public

June 23, 2018 09:00 - 6 minutes - 6.17 MB

Today's episode is a quick show to announce that all of the episodes for Invisible Details are now public and free. In the past, the majority of the shows on the seanwes network were available only to seanwes members, with the exception of the week's latest episode and a selection of hand-picked episodes from the show. This is no longer the case, and we're excited to be able to share that all of the shows on the seanwes network are now released to the public. This change is the the result ...

117: Nice to Haves (Part 4): Package, Price, and Sell Your Product

June 16, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 56.3 MB

You've come up with an idea, you've validated it with your audience, and you know the story you want to tell. Now you have to sell your product. The process of determining a price for your products can be difficult. Making sure the price is fair but also wanting to make a profit can be an endless cycle, not to mention the costs of actually producing the product itself. Objectively you need to sell your product, and if you want to sell it you're going to need to figure out the final price. ...

116: Nice to Haves (Part 3): Craft a Compelling Story That Attracts

June 09, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 58.7 MB

The worst mistake a business can make when talking about a nice to have product is to define its specifications...and that's it. Certainly the features of a product are important, as many people in your target audience might be interested in those facts, but facts don’t sell nice to haves: stories do. Story is what gives life to facts. It moves people beyond what we can see into what we feel, engaging parts of our mind that process the world differently. The inclusion of story in society is...

115: Nice to Haves (Part 2): Determine the Viability of Your Idea

June 02, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 63.3 MB

An idea is just an idea. You can’t market, launch, or sell an idea, no matter if it solves problems or not. If you want to sell something, you’re going to need to have someone willing to buy it. When it comes to products that are nice to have, you’re already starting with an uphill battle. This doesn’t make it impossible, but there is work that needs to be done. Unlike problem-solving ideas where you can simply answer the question of, “do people have this problem?” you have to tackle viabil...

114: Nice to Haves (Part 1): The Subjectivity of Value

May 26, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MB

Most businesses are built on a very understandable, palatable concept: find a problem, solve the problem, and sell it to the people who have the problem. This is a surefire way to make money in the 21st century, because much of the upfront work has already been done. While many people who want to make a living provide for themselves by solving direct problems, there is a vast number of others who want to make a living doing something that doesn't solve a direct problem. How do you come up...

113: Staying Relevant While Staying Consistent

May 19, 2018 09:00 - 48 minutes - 44.6 MB

Keeping up with the modern trends can be an arduous task with great reward. Staying in business requires knowing your market and adjusting as things change over time. On the other side of the coin is the idea of remaining consistent with your brand over the years. You’ve established yourself, you know what you’re about, and you’ve established solid patterns and systems. How do you balance staying relevant with your target market while not compromising on what your brand is built on? On tod...

112: How To Look at Your Analytics Objectively

May 05, 2018 09:00 - 45 minutes - 41.9 MB

One of the lesser-appreciated but equally important parts of any business is research. Knowing your market, understanding your target audience, and analyzing your current status. Taking a look at the numbers in any form can feel daunting. The moment you start looking over your site analytics, social media data, or the numbers from last month’s sales, lots of questions begin to spring up. Knowing how to evaluate the data is a skill that takes time, but it also requires you to disassociate yo...

111: Long Term Decisions vs. Short Term Action

April 28, 2018 09:00 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MB

Any time you start something there is a desire to have that thing find success, whatever level of success that may be. Perhaps it’s completely passive income, making seven figures a year, having a certain amount of clients, or just having enough to do the things you really want to do. Goals, dreams, and aspirations are all very important. Having a path in front of us helps to determine where we walk and what we do. There’s a lot of advice out there about envisioning the future, deciding who...

110: The Costs of Waiting Until It’s Done

April 21, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 56.3 MB

The idea of putting imperfect work out into the world is unpleasant. You know if you worked just a little harder, just a little longer, you might be able to get it to where you envision. Late nights, tweaks, updates, rehauls and refreshes. The bar for completion keeps getting higher and higher. Deadlines start coming up and the project is nowhere near the level you want it to be. Sound familiar? Maybe you’re working on a project and waiting to share it with the world until it’s done. You w...

109: Evaluating Your Brand for Maximum Results

April 14, 2018 09:00 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MB

If your body seems to be having some sort of health issue, the first thing anyone does is attempt to diagnose it. You identify the issue, sort out the causes and symptoms, and even see a professional if need be. Many people also have regular checkups with physicians or doctors, sometimes not because anything is externally wrong, but just to make sure everything is going well under the surface. The process of evaluating something gives you the opportunity to ask objective questions and reall...

108: A Primer on Developing Your Brand Identity

April 07, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MB

It’s not enough to simply have an idea of what you want your brand to be or how you want to be perceived. In order to remain consistent and to truly communicate what your brand is, you need to construct your brand identity. Whatever your brand projects is part of its identity. Words, imagery, color, tone, personality, it’s all wrapped up under the umbrella of brand identity. Your brand identity is the tool that gives you assurance that what your audience is seeing is consistent with what yo...

107: Getting Past the Fears of Building an Audience

March 31, 2018 09:00 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MB

Having a brand means having a certain kind of reputation. It means you are perceived in a certain way by someone else, whether positive or negative. The requirement of any brand is having someone else on the other side of it: a customer, a target audience member, a competitor, and so on. If nobody knows about what you're doing, your brand doesn't exist. Getting in front of people is not something that comes naturally to most. When you put yourself out there or when you allow your work or cr...

106: How Email Automation Fuels Your Brand

March 17, 2018 09:00 - 59 minutes - 54.8 MB

Every few months or so people proclaim loudly that email is dead and [insert new platform here] is the future of communication. However for all of its flaws, email is not yet dead, and is nowhere close to being so. Estimates show over 3.6 billion email accounts across the world, and research groups have estimated that over 236 billion emails were sent in 2017…per day. Yes, that’s 236 billion emails a day, or 86 trillion emails in a year. Of course, a response to this might be, “How can my ...

105: Why You Should Overdeliver Every Time

March 10, 2018 10:00 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MB

You might have heard the expression, “underpromise and overdeliver”. It’s the idea where you tell your customers or clients what they can expect, then giving them above and beyond what they expected. Sure, the expression is a cute one, but the idea of overdelivering is an interesting one. What exactly is the promise? Is it just as simple as knowing what you’re going to make and holding back some information about it? This episode is one of our conversational shows, exploring the idea of the...

104: Recovering From Negative Brand Perception

March 03, 2018 10:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MB

As hard as you may try, it’s impossible to please everyone that comes across your brand. Many people will love what you’re about, and some people will not resonate with it. Of course, there will always be people who don’t trust or like you. Trying to convert those people is often a misuse of energy, so it’s typically more constructive to work on building trust between you and your actual target audience. Building a brand is ultimately about building trust. When people trust you, they are mo...

103: A Better Approach To Accomplishing Brand Goals

February 24, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 69.1 MB

Everything you do for your brand should be associated with some sort of goal. When you sit down and take a look at the direction you’re headed and what needs to happen next, you set a point that you want to get to. Goals come in many shapes and scales, from publishing the latest newsletter to shipping your flagship course to hiring your 100th employee. When handled right, they can provide incredible direction and satisfaction upon completion. Once you start adding more goals to the list, ho...

102: Weird Business Ideas That Actually Worked

February 17, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 55.8 MB

You’ve probably never heard of Gary Dahl. Gary had an idea in the 1970s that would go on to make him millions. The idea? The Pet Rock. It was literally a box with a rock in it that people bought for $3.95. Originally created as a joke, Gary’s ridiculous idea resonated with the culture of the time and it became one of the weirdest business stories of our time. And that’s just one story. Determining the viability of a product or service can lead to a lot of sleepless nights. “Would people...

101: The Little Details That Set You Apart

February 10, 2018 10:00 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MB

Do you remember the last time you had an experience with a brand that made you absolutely delighted? What was the circumstance? How did it make you feel? We so often look at business with only the transactional side of things in mind, when most customers remember primarily the feeling of the transaction. When you add delight into the mixture, you improve the chances of that feeling being a positive one. Sweating the details can look different for different situations, but in every case it i...

100: The Brands We Love and Why

January 27, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 72 MB

Today marks a big milestone for Invisible Details: we’ve reached our 100th episode! To celebrate, we turned on our cameras and opened up the broadcast to all of our listeners for a special public live show. On today's show, we talk about our favorite brands, things we can learn and bring into the new year, and our hopes and plans for the next one hundred episodes of Invisible Details.

099: Reducing Friction for a Positive User Experience

January 13, 2018 10:00 - 21 minutes - 20 MB

One of the best ways to measure the success of your business is to set goals and track your progress to achieving those goals. Your goals might be conversions achieved, sales numbers, contacts subscribed, or any number of other things. In most cases, your customers or audience members have to perform some sort of action to hit these overall goals. Customer actions are the building blocks to accomplish your brand goals. For example, in order to hit a revenue goal, you have to have a customer...

098: Get Simple Before You Get Fancy

December 30, 2017 10:00 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MB

Ideas are worthless. The only thing that matters is actually doing something about those ideas. Taking action is the variable that counts. Once you have an idea, you might start to work on it. You put in some work here and there, but realize after a while the scope of what you want to do is larger than you originally anticipated. You start adding to your process, revamping what you have. You redesign, you scrap and start over, you lie awake at night because it's simply not done. Why does i...

097: The Importance of Spelling and Grammar in Your Copy

December 23, 2017 10:00 - 43 minutes - 39.7 MB

Your going to love todays episode. Language is a fascinating topic, and along with language comes the conversation about spelling, grammar, and overall structure of your communication. There has been an interesting observable trend over the last decade or so, a trend that has slowly diminished both the social requirement of good writing and increased the necessity of speed in our communication. The results are apparent and incredibly interesting as you study the nature of how people connec...

096: The Problem With Having Only One Source of Income

December 09, 2017 10:00 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MB

A business relies on cash flow. In order for a business to survive, there has to be some source of income. This can look like product sales, services, donations, investors, or other means of financing. The common denominator is that there is income coming in (see what I did there?). The internet has brought about a lot of opportunities for businesses to thrive online, but it has challenges of its own. Hosting your business on someone else’s platform or building your income streams solely o...

095: What Video Games Taught Me About Branding

November 25, 2017 10:00 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MB

Today’s show is going to be a bit different. Today we’re talking about video games. Video gaming can be a bit of a controversial topic here and there, but we’re not necessarily talking about the content of video games as much as some of the lessons we can learn from some of the philosophies applied to gaming. Why do people buy games? Why is there such a huge investment by consumers into consoles, computers, games, and micro-transactions? What can we learn from a $100 billion industry about ...

094: Should I Be the Face of My Brand?

November 18, 2017 10:00 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MB

One of the first things we learn to do in life is to recognize faces. Some research suggests that babies are able to recognize their parents within only a few weeks of being born, and that it could only take a few months of repeated visits from friends or family to recognize them as well. As we grow older and learn to study and memorize our surroundings, this process gets easier. We can instantly spot our friends from across a large room because we have learned to process what their face loo...

093: Is It Possible to Have Multiple Target Audiences?

November 11, 2017 10:00 - 1 hour - 55.9 MB

One of the questions we ask on this show most frequently is, “Who is it you’re trying to reach? Who do you want to help?” Establishing who your target market is arguably required homework at the start of your brand. It defines your methodology, messaging, and focus. If you have no target, you have no direction. Target audience can cover any number of factors, from varying demographics, business levels, industries, and deeply specific niches. Knowing who you’re trying to reach brings great c...

092: How to Prevent the Endless Redesign

November 04, 2017 09:00 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MB

When it comes to the overall look and visual identity of your brand, it can be easy to fall into the trap of the endless redesign. Whether it’s been six months since your last logo update or the website you just can’t bring yourself to ship yet, redesigning can be paralyzing. On the other hand, your visual identity may actually need an update or a refresh. It might have been a few years and the way your brand looks doesn’t necessarily match the way it’s naturally evolved over time. Either w...

091: Befriending the Audience You Don’t Know

October 21, 2017 09:00 - 1 hour - 64.1 MB

A new alert appears on your screen. You have a new subscriber! You get that warm fuzzy feeling as you click into their contact profile. They’ve put in their first name so you know what to call them, and there’s even a little avatar that was pulled in from their social media. They’re an actual person, someone who was interested enough to sign up and follow you. You’re excited. There seems to be some growth happening. Then things seem to plateau. You’re still getting subscribers, but people ...

090: Your Website Isn’t About You (Or Is It?)

October 14, 2017 09:00 - 39 minutes - 36 MB

Having a website in this day and age is nearly non-optional, as more and more people get connected around the world and are searching for solutions to their problems. While the internet may seem oversaturated with offerings, products, websites, social media accounts, and services, it is still the primary way that most people get their information. If someone is interested in you or your business, they’re going to search for you on the internet, and you need to be ready for that moment. Th...

089: A Conversation About Free Products

October 07, 2017 09:00 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MB

Last week Kyle and I were in Austin, Texas for seanwes conference 2017. Because we were traveling and putting on the conference, we didn't get a chance to record an episode together, but there was a conversation we had recently that we wanted to share. Giving things away for free is a great way to attract new leads. It opens up reciprocity, of course, but it also allows you to truly give someone value. Whether the content is freely available and shareable on your website or if it's a lead ...

088: How to Stay Focused When You Sell Multiple Things

September 30, 2017 09:00 - 52 minutes - 48.6 MB

Whether you’re in business to sell products or services, at some point you’ll need to decide what exactly you’ll be selling. Not only that, but as you grow you’ll need to decide what happens if you want sell more than one thing. If you do decide to start creating more things to sell, it can be easy to lose focus on the bigger picture, which is understandable because you want to sell the best version possible. Fragmentation starts to creep in, and while you’re busy making sure your new thing...

087: Using “Who You Know” To Your Brand’s Advantage

September 16, 2017 09:00 - 53 minutes - 49.5 MB

You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” It’s a nice sentiment, but like most platitudes, it lacks any sense of practicality. Not only that, but the phrase “it’s who you know” might imply that you’re only getting to know people in order to gain something from them, which is remarkably disingenuous. How then is it “who we know”? Do you just try and find the biggest names possible and try to become friends so you can get a favor later on? Spoiler: no. ...

086: 9 Simple Questions to Ask When Starting Your Brand

September 02, 2017 09:00 - 32 minutes - 30 MB

You have an idea. It might sound crazy, but you believe that with hard work and dedication, your idea can be successful. Maybe you’ve been building this idea for years, but it’s time to finally get serious. Whether you are just starting out as a brand or have been building your brand for many years, it is always important to know where you’re from and where you’re going. Asking specific questions will help to lay the building blocks that will help you define your brand. Getting started can...

085: Can You Be Confident Without Looking Arrogant?

August 26, 2017 09:00 - 59 minutes - 54.6 MB

Building a company, product, business, or organization requires a lot of knowledge, hard work, and determination. You have to be sure that what you’re building matters and that you’re doing the right thing. When you believe you’re doing the right thing, you assume a level of confidence that you need to have to push forward. You believe in your brand, and you are sure that you are right as you proceed. Confidence, as you may have heard, is key when you’re a leader. You know how to move forwa...

084: How to Turn One Lousy Idea Into 10 Pieces of Epic Content

August 19, 2017 09:00 - 22 minutes - 21 MB

To make your brand stand out above the rest, you’ll have to create great content. But ideas seem so hard. Even if the ideas you have are relevant to what your brand is all about, they can seem lousy. If your content ideas are lacking, you’re not destined for failure. You just need a new perspective. In today’s show, Kyle Adams takes over to talk about how you can take those seemingly lousy ideas and turn them into epic pieces of content your audience will crave.

083: The Importance of Staying Consistent Even When It’s Hard

August 12, 2017 09:00 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MB

Over the years of building a brand, growing a business, or pursuing a passion, everything comes in cycles. Just like in life, there can be seasons of plenty and of need, times where it seems like success overflows and times where it seems you can’t find any. Our experiences often swing in pendulum, with varying amounts of time between the extremes, and sometimes we find ourselves in the most difficult seasons with no apparent relief. The stress feels endless, there’s too much work, too many...

082: Turn Unhappy Customers Into Golden Opportunities For Growth

August 05, 2017 09:00 - 56 minutes - 51.4 MB

The universal aspect of business is at some point you’re going to have to deal with another person, and if you’re trying to *stay* in business, there will have to be some sort of monetary exchange. Even if you have a product or service that you give away for free, you’ll still need to have people using it. That’s the point, after all. When you have people buying your product or using your service, at some point you’ll have to deal with an unhappy customer. It could be a product that was da...

081: Collaborate and Reach New Audiences

July 29, 2017 09:00 - 45 minutes - 42.2 MB

Feel like you haven’t been able to expand how you want? Seems like you’re just spinning your wheels and hustling but you’re looking for another push? It might be time to consider collaboration. Collaboration is when two parties unite together to produce something that will appeal to both of their audiences. This can open up a lot of opportunities and work to benefit both you and the other brand. There are a lot of ways you can seek out collaboration, and in this show we’re going to go over...

080: Building Your Personal Brand Into Something Bigger

July 15, 2017 09:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MB

One of the realities of doing anything in this world is that you’re always building up a perception about yourself. People are going to feel and think things about you, no matter what. Naturally this means that everyone has a brand of some kind, whether or not you have a business or are trying to build anything. Connecting this to what you’re doing, however, carries a lot of weight. What is a personal brand, anyways? Is it as simple as slapping your name on something and calling it good? ...